


The Walk

by agoodwoman



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 12:17:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6051322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodwoman/pseuds/agoodwoman





	The Walk

Mulder took the buds out of his ears and wrapped the long cord around his iPod. He watched as she exited her SUV and make her way up the steps toward him.

 

This was a porch they had many conversations on, arguments and once or twice made love on. More than twice, if Mulder was counting, which he promised Scully he wouldn’t. A man doesn’t forget those things.

 

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

 

Along with being lectured by Skinner for his embarrassing behaviour, Mulder was left with a massive headache that aspirin and water helped alleviate but mainly he just felt disappointed. How did a placebo give him the visions that helped him interact with Shiraz?

 

Scully believed he saw the motel on his way from the airport to the hospital and someone or something triggered a subconscious connection in his mind. While she believed in his certainty, she also denied that a niacin pill could create a hallucination so strongly that he would connect to a man in a coma.

 

“I feel like a man who saw the dead, who was shown a truth and who nobody believes. I feel like it’s twenty years ago,” he said as he shook his head and she chuffed out a laugh. “Except my geography is different and I’ve lost a lot more.”

 

“Have you?” she asked. “Mulder, what about all you’ve gained?”

 

“I lost that too,” he said solemnly and looked up at her. “But…. Scully I think I’m getting it back.”

 

“Mulder, that’s where wonders never cease with you,” she told him softly. “You always hope.”

 

Mulder stood up and extended his hand to her. “Walk with me, Scully.”

 

Their fingers interlaced and they made their way down the front steps together. There was the quiet of the neighbourhood, bugs moving about in the tall grass, birds talking to one another in the distance and the sound of wind moving off the water of a lake they swam in when the nights were unbearably hot. More than one hundred memories recalled back to Mulder when he looked around at a land he swore he would take better care of and if it wasn't a metaphor for the state of their relationship he didn't know what was. 

 

“I’ve been thinking about God,” he started.

 

“You, Mulder?” she said in calmed disbelief.

 

“I give you a lot of shit there could be a higher power for someone who believes he saw Big Blue, Elvis in a potato chip and the Jersey Devil,” he admitted.

 

Scully laughed. “You really do.”

 

“I’m not saying I’m about to start attending Sunday mass but since you’ve opened your mind to more possibilities, I suppose I should try to exercise the same due care,” he said and kicked his foot at a small pebble on the path. “If I’ve learned anything since… I know it can’t all be one way.”

 

“I don’t believe it,” she replied and it was his turn to laugh.

 

“We’ve seen so much and you’ve admitted to what you can believe outside what natural science allows us to understand,” he continued. They stopped their walk to face one another and took in the moment. “I mean, I want to believe in so much. I refuse to believe that women are having babies just for them to become martyrs.”

 

“No mother wants that for her child,” she told him and her voice caught in her throat. He took her other hand in his and saw in her face the pain of that sacrifice. He wondered if he disappointed her every day that he wasn’t able to live up to that. “They wish for health and happiness, love and laughter. I think that’s God’s will.”

 

“William has that, I’m sure,” he said and she nodded. “Don’t ask how I’m sure of it but I just feel it.”

 

“I feel it too,” she admitted.

 

Just two weeks ago she sat on a log by the waterfront and discussed her feelings of guilt over what they did. Deep down, she believed their son was doing well but her fear that he wasn’t managed to take over when the sadness of her life’s reality was too much to take. When one piece fell, they all crumbled around her and the fragility of her well being could be affected. More so now that he wasn’t there to hold her in the middle of the night and tell her he was there to curse God or kiss away the hurt. He was good at that.

 

Mulder leaned down and kissed her softly. There was appreciation and intent.

 

“I think we’ll find him, Scully,” he whispered as he pressed his forehead to hers.

 

“Or he’ll find us,” she suggested and he pulled away to look in her eyes. “Most children of adoption have a feeling of displacement, Mulder. You never know. He might look for us.”

 

Mulder kissed her again and she allowed him to enter her mouth with the sweetness and innocence of a first date. When the kiss broke he pulled her towards him and he kissed the top of her head. “I believe we’ll see him again in this life, Scully.”

 

“Together, as a family,” she said into his chest. 

 

There was a promise there from her that meant more than just as your work partner and sometimes lover. It meant she would be ready to move forward from what she ran from in the past. Perhaps the separation of their recent months was good for their own journey of self growth, but what a waste.

 

“Fifteen years later.”


End file.
